Memorable Elections

Memorable Elections

Author

Website Name

History.com

Year Published

2010

Title

Memorable Elections

URL

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/memorable-elections

Access Date

August 02, 2015

Publisher

A+E Networks

Introduction

With the chance to serve as chief executive of the world’s premier power at stake, the race for the U.S. presidency has delivered its share of hotly-contested elections. George W. Bush became the fourth president to win despite losing the popular vote in 2000, an election that wasn’t decided until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a Florida recount to be unconstitutional. Harry S. Truman won in 1948 despite the publication of a newspaper that announced otherwise, while Rutherford B. Hayes moved to the White House only after a controversial electoral commission helped him overcome a massive popular-vote deficit in 1877.

The 2000 election was one of four elections in U.S. history in which the winner of the electoral votes did not carry the popular vote.

Gore conceded on election night, but retracted his concession when he learned that the vote in Florida was too close to call. A recount of the Florida votes ensued, but was eventually ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ralph Nader has formally run for president four times; the first time was in 1996. He was also a write-in candidate in 1992.

1960

With his victory by a scant 120,000 votes, the 43-year-old Kennedy became the youngest-ever U.S. president. Nixon was 47–only four years older.

Voters feared that Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, might be controlled by the Catholic Church. He was the nation’s first–and only–Catholic U.S. president. (in 2009, Joe Biden became the country’s first Catholic vice president.)

Kennedy’s relaxed demeanor and telegenic looks gave him the edge in four televised debates; many credit these debates for his eventual victory.

Thomas Dewey, the governor of New York, had run for president once before, against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, and lost in a close race.

Truman, FDR’s vice president, became president on April 12, 1945, after Roosevelt’s death.

Truman was seen as an underdog going into the 1948 election–so much so that the Chicago Tribune printed newspapers with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.” A picture of the victorious Truman holding the newspaper is one of the most famous photos in U.S. history.

Because of disputed returns from several states and accusations that one Oregon elector was ineligible, neither candidate was able to capture the 185 electoral votes needed for victory. The Senate and House of Representatives deadlocked on how to count the votes and finally agreed to establish an electoral commission, which after an independent member had to drop out, was made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The commission gave the election to Hayes (8-7). Congressional Democrats then used a series of stalling tactics to delay confirmation of the vote. Eventually, in what many believe to be a compromise in which the Republicans agreed to a conciliatory attitude toward the South (in the midst of Reconstruction) in return for a Hayes presidency, some Democrats began to support Hayes. Congress confirmed his election on March 2, 1877.

Angered by the results of the election, some Northern Democrats referred to Hayes as “his Fraudulency.”

After becoming president, Hayes announced he would serve just one term, and was true to his word.